Residents return to storm-damaged apartment blocks

Most of the people who were evacuated from a set of Guernsey apartments during Storm Goretti have returned to their homes.

A total of 50 residents were forced to leave the Mon Plaisir complex in Green Lanes, St Peter Port, after part of the roof was ripped off on Thursday night as winds reaching 90mph (145kmph) battered the island.

John Merrien, director of the flats, said all but five of the residents who were displaced had been able to return to their home after a "monumental effort" to make the site safe.

He said it was a "great relief nobody was seriously hurt" at the time and everyone was relieved "their disruption had come to an end".

Merrien said five apartments needed further remedial works and the people who lived in them had been moved to winter lets while the repairs took place.

He said two of the coverings on the flat roof buildings had been peeled back and one of them impacted a third building.

He added: "We've got the canopies going up today and once the sites are protected from the elements, we can make good the roofs, and we don't expect any disruption beyond sort of Easter time."

Merrien added they had some good contractors who, when they saw the damage, went "the extra mile to help get everybody back in their homes as soon as possible".

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